Cantucci biscuits

Method

• Toast the almonds in the oven for 5 minutes at 200 C. Let them cool down.
• Whip three eggs, and sugar with an electric mixer till your mixture turns to a pale yellow with lots of bubbles.
• Add the flour and cream of tartar and mix with a spatula. Now add the butter, zest and salt and gently mix everything together with your hands. Stir in the almonds.
• Transfer the sticky dough to a floured surface and divide it into four equal parts. Now form three sausages, approximately 4 cm wide and around 25 cm long. Each ‘sausage’ will wait around 300 g.
• Delicately transfer the ‘sausages’ to your baking tray lined with baking paper or (even better) a reusable mat. Make sure there is enough space between each sausage. Brush the surface with milk.
• Biscotto literally means cooked twice in Italian and these biscuits are were this way of baking comes from. For the ‘first bake’ cook the sausages for 25 minutes at 180 °C.
• Let your biscuit-sausages cool down for 8 minutes (max! if you wait more than that you will be unable to properly cut the biscuits as they will be too crumbly).
• Now cut them obliquely with a serrated knife, each biscuit should be 1.5 cm wide. The secret is to be very firm and secure when you cut the biscuits, any uncertainty will result in a crumbly cut. Go for it, you got this! Now return your biscuits to the baking tray with the flat side on top, we’re ready for the ‘second bake’.  Toast for 10 minutes at 150 °C.
• Let them cool down on a wire rack before eating although they are irresistible. They say these biscuits last for several weeks if stored in a tin box but I never had the self-control to experience this myself hehe! Eat them with sweet wine (vin santo!) after dinner for an authentic experience!